A federal judge Tuesday denied a request by AC&R Advertising Inc., a national ad agency, to restrain a Costa Mesa firm started by former AC&R employees from allegedly stealing its customers. Since its founding in January, Esprit Communications, an ad agency specializing in health-care clients, has snagged several of AC&R's major medical accounts, including Beckman Instruments, a giant Fullerton-based manufacturer of medical devices.

A federal judge Tuesday denied a request by AC&R Advertising Inc., a national ad agency, to restrain a Costa Mesa firm started by former AC&R employees from allegedly stealing its customers. Since its founding in January, Esprit Communications, an ad agency specializing in health-care clients, has snagged several of AC&R's major medical accounts, including Beckman Instruments, a giant Fullerton-based manufacturer of medical devices.

Gary Cunningham, senior vice president and creative director at the Irvine office of national advertising firm AC&R, has jumped ship to become a partner with an Orange County shop. Cunningham plans to join Costa Mesa-based Roberts/Mealer/Emerson on Wednesday. The firm will become Roberts/Mealer/Cunningham on Jan. 1, dropping the name of James Emerson, who retired in June. AC&R was Cochrane Chase, Livingston & Co. until about a year ago, when it merged into AC&R Advertising Inc.

Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. said Friday that it pulled its Tri-Star Pictures domestic advertising account from the Los Angeles branch of AC&R Advertising and gave it to McCann-Erickson Worldwide, which now places domestic advertising for the company's Columbia Pictures unit.

Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. said Friday that it pulled its Tri-Star Pictures domestic advertising account from the Los Angeles branch of AC&R Advertising and gave it to McCann-Erickson Worldwide, which now places domestic advertising for the company's Columbia Pictures unit.

Over the past several months, a cramped suite of rooms in the Orange County Register building in Santa Ana has been transformed into a gleaming warren of sophisticated computer and video equipment. Walls are lined with new television monitors, videotape editing machines, computer graphics generators and picture storage units. Specially equipped Macintosh computers sit atop every desk. Robotic television cameras survey the studio set.

Over the past several months, a cramped suite of rooms in the Orange County Register building here has been transformed into a gleaming warren of sophisticated computer and video equipment. Walls are lined with new television monitors, videotape editing machines, computer graphics generators and picture storage units. Specially equipped Macintosh computers sit atop every desk. Robotic television cameras survey the studio set.

Doonesbury sometimes seems like the kind of guy whose most pressing problem is whether to lunch on Cajun chicken or duck sausage pizza. But the oh-so-hip comic strip character has spent the past two weeks wrestling with a question that delves--if not stabs--into the heart of the advertising business: Do people who create commercials have any conscience? The answer, at least the one reached by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, won't leave many advertising executives with whiter shirts or brighter teeth.

Gary Cunningham, senior vice president and creative director at the Irvine office of national advertising firm AC&R, has jumped ship to become a partner with an Orange County shop. Cunningham plans to join Costa Mesa-based Roberts/Mealer/Emerson on Wednesday. The firm will become Roberts/Mealer/Cunningham on Jan. 1, dropping the name of James Emerson, who retired in June. AC&R was Cochrane Chase, Livingston & Co. until about a year ago, when it merged into AC&R Advertising Inc.